Blog

Fog Computing Essential for Customizable Manufacturing Workflows

Mar 24, 2016

by Bob Ashenbrenner

The phrase “Cloud Computing” has been with us for a couple
of decades now, used as a short-hand for a number of things: remote storage;
applications hosted on servers with data shown on our screens; and, in general,
the full abstraction of where most Internet features actually reside. For
example:

Siri voice recognition is not performed on the
iPhone. Instead, the voice file is sent to an Apple server “in the Cloud” where
algorithms analyze the noises, discern specific speech sounds, figure out the
likely words and sentences, and then perform the function requested. What you
see on your iPhone is the end of the process completed in the cloud.

The Cloud’s remote storage capabilities are most
commonly used for photo storage. The Google Photos application moves your
Android photos onto Google’s servers, where they can be stored, edited and
shared. Photo storage is just one example, though.

There are many advantages to Cloud Computing, such as
storage “somewhere else,” access to our data as we drive around town or fly
around the world, and applications that can harness the computing power of
remote servers and even supercomputers. The one common benefit? You will always
have the same user experience when you access your data, no matter where you
are, as long as you have a reliable Internet connection.

But Cloud Computing does have some disadvantages, which has
led many manufacturers to move to Fog Computing. To understand Fog Computing,
let’s first consider what modern high-tech factories are doing today – and what
we anticipate they’ll be doing in a few years.

Facilities for high value and high customization
manufacturing processes have been updating their production line equipment with
more customizable technology and connecting them to the factory’s servers. It
is easy to call this an example of the Internet of Things, but it is more
accurate to refer to this trend as Industry 4.0. Put simply, by measuring,
configuring, and controlling robots and fabrication fixtures via a centralized
server, manufacturers can better analyze their productivity and efficiency.
They can reconfigure equipment for more customization on their products. They
can also refine the synchronization of their production processes with inbound
and outbound shipment schedules. This allows them to accommodate component delivery
delays as needed and more accurately plan resources needed for final product
packing.

However, each of these automated processes generates massive
amounts of data. Commands are constantly sent to equipment as product moves
down the line. Equipment monitoring systems are active around-the-clock,
conducting predictive data analysis and notifying maintenance workers of
outages or preventative steps that need to be taken to prevent equipment
failure.

Yet, Cloud Computing isn’t ideally designed to support this
level of data common to manufacturing environments today – and it certainly
won’t be able to handle the global transition to Industry 4.0 technologies when
that time comes. Here’s why:

Cloud Computing has a latency issue; it can’t respond fast
enough to a request for data. While a one second delay isn’t too long for a
Siri response, it is an eternity to an idle piece of manufacturing equipment. Latency
only gets worse as the distance between the manufacturing equipment and server
increases and there are more (Internet routing) nodes that need to be
traversed. The solution? Many factories bring the Cloud down to where all of
the data is generated and used. When this Cloud is lowered down to ground
level, it is Fog.

One of the primary advantages of Fog Computing in
manufacturing is that latency is very short – the sensors and data are very
close together. All of the data, applications and processing can be handled
locally
. While the huge amount of data generated still needs to be stored
somewhere, storing it remotely (or via the Cloud) offers no advantages. After
all, the factory isn’t traveling – the machines and the data are always at the
same location. Local storage facilitates local processing which means more
quickly transmitted results and more consistent production tempos.

Bottom line: Fog Computing provides manufacturers with the
advantages of Cloud Computing without the disadvantages.

In fact, this shift from Cloud Computing to Fog Computing is
one of the most impactful changes happening in manufacturing today.
Aeronautics, automobile, high-capacity network equipment, pharmaceutical and medical
equipment all require highly automated, highly monitored factories. The workers in these factories are more highly
skilled, more versatile and flexible than in generations past. And the people
who control the critical equipment, who respond to issues, and perform timely
maintenance are information workers too. They need access to core applications,
virtual reality presentations of assemblies, and performance data. But all of
this requires a highly mobile computing environment capable of providing
reliable, real-time accessibility to the data being captured and analyzed by
automated factory systems.

Mobile tablet PCs are poised to play a central role in the
implementation of manufacturers’ Industry 4.0 technologies
. Plants will be
going completely paperless, and manufacturers need tablet PCs that can be connected
to Fog Computing networks in the factory, just as critically as the
manufacturing equipment, to aid in workers’ data capture and analysis across
the factory floor.

We’ll dig into the specific role of rugged mobile
technologies in manufacturing in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out our recent
discussions regarding new rugged tablet I/O standards that have been introduced
in preparation for manufacturing’s move to more automated and mobility-driven
operations: